The austerity course of the district of Starnberg affects everyone: youth work, climate protection, local public transport – hardly any area is left out when it comes to cutting, shortening and moving. A few examples: The flower decoration competition with the selection of the best gardeners in the Unterbrunner multi-purpose hall will not be held next year after the Corona break either, there is much less money than before for an award ceremony as part of the Fünfseen Film Festival, for music events like the day the wind music or the choir festival no longer. These are just three items from a long cross-off list that the district councils have been working on in hours-long meetings over the past few weeks. In this way, it has been possible to reduce current expenses by almost one million euros.
The district councils themselves are also affected. At their meetings in the district office and at administrative meetings, there is usually coffee and cake, spritzer and water – and sometimes a meal afterwards in the restaurant. Originally, 30,000 euros were budgeted for hospitality per year, but the item is reduced by a third. There is no longer any money for the traditional bus excursion for politicians and administrative staff, which was declared as an “information trip” and has already taken, for example, to Merano, Constance or Innsbruck.
It hasn’t been that much deleted in ten years
“It is an important signal to the municipalities that we are ready to save,” said district administrator Stefan Frey on Tuesday in the budget committee when the figures were presented publicly for the first time after internal consultations. “It’s not funny to have to do something like that,” Frey said. “It’s no fun having to cancel like it hasn’t done in ten years.” There are special challenges that have to be faced. What is meant are drastically increased expenses, including for energy costs and the accommodation of refugees.
While the cuts in many places are primarily to be understood as a sign, it is a real relief that the district is postponing three million-dollar projects for years. According to the current status of financial planning, there is no money for the new construction of a technical college (FOS) in Starnberg, for the general renovation of the high school in Tutzing and for the construction of a clinic in Seefeld in the coming years; only planning costs are foreseen. The FOS is provisionally well accommodated in the buildings in the commercial area, said Frey. And in Tutzing, the necessary renovation and maintenance work on the school building would continue to be carried out.
There is also no money for many large construction projects. Among them for the new building of the FOS in Starnberg …
(Photo: Schürmann Dettinger Architects)
… and for the renovation of the high school in Tutzing.
(Photo: district office)
In the town halls in the district, the savings and cuts will continue in the next few weeks, because the municipalities are also affected by rising expenses – and they have to transfer more money than before as a district levy to Starnberg. In Gauting, Seefeld, Starnberg and Tutzing, for example, the increases are in some cases well over 1.5 million euros. The assessment rate is now set at 53.55 percent. This means that the municipalities have to give back a little more than half of their income. At least this contribution could be reduced by the cuts, but the burden is considerable. The so-called unmet need, which the district gets from the municipalities, amounts to a total of 130 million euros.
The budget committee approved the revised draft almost unanimously. Only the Greens voted against it. Mainly because of the cuts in climate protection. The deputy leader of the parliamentary group, Bernd Pfitzner, announced that the budget would be reviewed in detail and that a proposed change would be submitted to the district council. In the December session, the plenum is to decide on the budget. The district administrator and representatives of other factions took note of this announcement with displeasure, after all, the budget had been intensively dealt with in hours-long meetings. Albert Luppart, spokesman for the Free Voters, described Pfitzner as a “bad loser”.